Romeo Langford touts revamped shooting form

The Celtics selected Romeo Langford 14th in the NBA draft because they have high hopes for him. He’s a talented driver and started earning playing time with his defense before the shutdown. However, the most commonly sighted limitation in his game is his shooting. Much of that was blamed on a shooting motion that most believed was less than ideal. It is a small sample size, but he’s shooting just 21.7% (5-23) from 3 point range this season so far.

As a result, Romeo has spent the year (and in particular the season stoppage quasi-offseason) working with Assistant Coach Joe Mazzulla to rebuild his jumper.

MassLive reports that he’s happy with his progress.

A year later, Langford said his jumper has improved dramatically — so much so that relapsing into his old form is unlikely even after a long layoff due to the coronavirus pandemic that forced the NBA to suspend its season.

“I worked on it so much with Joe, it’s hard for me to fall back into where I would normally shoot,” Langford told reporters via Zoom on Friday. “I may shoot like one, two here and there like my old jumper but really it’s never a problem any more. It’s more fluid, it’s more natural to me now, so it’s much easier.”

The Celtics could definitely use someone with Langford’s skillset to contribute off the bench, in particular if he can at least be a threat from long range. It remains to be seen if Romeo will see action in the playoffs if the team is at full strength. However, you never know when additional depth will be needed.

Personally I’ve always seen Romeo as a long term investment but it wouldn’t hurt to see some early dividends as well.